Reviews

This is the logical next step away from “The Horror of the Heights” (1913), which in turn develops “The Damned Thing” (1894). In the earlier stories, the naturalism rings false: it simply doesn’t make enough sense that near-invisible apex predators should be unknown, even if they are made to retreat to the upper atmosphere or a cave system etc. Lovecraft puts them where they belong: just slightly out of phase, all around and within us, appropriately contextualizing and magnifying “What Was It? A Mystery” (1859).